7 Bizarre Animal Languages (PHOTOS)

Although some people prefer to think that language is solely the province of people, we are finding that more and more animal species have language in their own right. My book Chasing Doctor Dolittle shows that many animals, mostly the ones who are social and interact all the time with others, have languages that can be fairly sophisticated. From bats and mice that sing songs to ants and honeybees that tell each other about the location of food, animals are sharing information with each other, and can sometimes use that information to persuade, manipulate, or even deceive other animals. This is not to say that a bat will produce a high-pitched rendition of Shakespeare's sonnets. But maybe the bat is singing its own version of sonnets in bat language. We now have to adjust our view of animals to include the possibility that they can use language to think about the world around them, and that they are sentient beings who are conscious of themselves and of others. Some years ago, scientists pictured a vast gulf between us and animals: we had language, they didn't. Now we know that the gulf doesn't exist. Instead, it is more of a continuum, with each species having a language that reflects its own ecological needs.

In the seven examples of animal languages that I present, at first the languages might seem bizarre or strange to us. But upon reflection, we can see some parallels between these animals and us, either in terms of what we do, as with the dances of the albatrosses, or in terms of how our technology has converged on solving similar problems, such as with the elephants communicating over long distances with low frequency sound.

Fireflies are actually beetles and not flies. Males and females communicate with a series of flashes of light that are like a code. The male puts out several flashes and the female answers with her own flashes in the same rhythm. Females tend to stay on vegetation, while the males fly around looking for the females. Once they find each other, they mate. There are several species of fireflies in any one area, and each species has its own particular code, varying the duration of the flashes and the intervals between them. Then there are some predatory fireflies that use flashes to lure in unsuspecting males. A female predatory firefly can adjust her flashing code to lure in males of several species, each answering its own species’ flashes. The male lands next to the predatory female, expecting a night of love. Instead, he quickly finds that he has been invited to dinner, where he is the main course.